Hydrocarbon burner



May 29, 1923.

w. R. PARK HYDn'ocARBoN BURNER Filed Nov. 1'7'.' 1920 Patented May 29, 1923.

WILLIAM R. PARK, 0F TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS; WILLIAM R. PARK, JR.EXECUTOR OF SAID WILLIAM R. PARK, DECEASED.

HYDROCARBON BURNER.

Application led November 17, 1920. Serial No. 424,643.

` To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, WILLIAM R. PARK, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of Taunton, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements inHydrocarbon Burners, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to hydrocarbon burners, and consists of an improvement'upon hydrocarbon burners of the character described in Letters Patent of the United States No. 248,110, granted tome `and Frank D. Heath on the eleventh day of October, 1881. The object of my improvement is to perfect and complete the combustion of hydrocarbon fuel with air, and thus to increase the efficiency of the burner.

Hydrocarbon burners of the character indicated are adapted to burn heavy hydrocarbons, such as residues from the distillation of light oils from either asphalt-base or paraffine-base petroleiun, and are generally used to burn fuel of this nature in and for steam boiler furnaces. The efficiency of such a burner-as measured, for instance, by the quantityof water evaporated in a boiler per pound of hydrocarbon fuel burned-depends on the completeness with whichfthe fuel is chemically combined with the oxygen of the air supplied for combustion purposes. In burners of the character indicated, the hydrocarbon fuel is entrained into a combining tube by the inductive action of a jet of steam, which also draws into and propels through the combining tube a stream of air which, though insufficient in volume to supply the oxygen required for complete combustion of the hydrocarbon fuel, primes the hydrocarbon and assists in breaking it up into small drops, producing with the impelling steam- ]et, a spray of mingled air steam and hydrocarbon. This spray, being ignited as it issues from the combining tube, requires a large supplementary supply of air for combustion, such as was provided for by the structure and mode of operation of the hydrocarbon burner described in the above mentioned patent. The object, in the design and operation of such burners, has been to introduce the supplementary air supply to the burning fuelspray 1n such manner as to mingle air and fuel intimately. The attempt to effect this object, by the burnershown in the aforesaid patent, involved directing the air as it en tered the combustion tube, vso ythat it -impinged centripetally against the fuel-spray jet, the idea being tol break up the spray with Y air. While burners having that peculiarity, and a structural arrangement of the induct end of the combustion chamber adapted to produceA an impingement of air against the fuel-spray, have been found practicable, nevertheless the presence of smoke'in the boiler uptake betrayed the presence of unconsumed carbon, and a failure to attain complete or ideal combustion eiiciency.

Y By a series of experiments with burners of this general type, varied in design, proportions, shape of parts, and adjustments, I have become convinced that impingement of the air drawn into the combustion chamber against the fuel-spray, involved an errorl 1n theory, and produced a defect practice. rIhe result of these investigations is yexempliiied by the hydrocarbonburner illustrated in the accompanying drawing, which `embodies my present invention .and 'improvement. This drawing shows the burner in vertical longitudinal section, and in part 1n side elevation. ,Y

In the drawing, 1 represents the air priming tube, 2 the steam tube, into which steam enters through apertures 3, froml the steam supply pipe 4. The hydrocarbon fuel flows from 'the tube 5 into the space 5a surrounding the steam tube 2 and is inducted by the steam jet into the combining tubel 6, where steam, air and fuel meet, and from which' they are ejected in mixture into the combustion tube 9. The supplementary and final supply of air enters at 10 between the combustion tube 9 and the jacket 8, reversing its direction of fiow to enter the combustion tube, into which this air is drawn by the entraining action of the fuel spray, which is ignited asit issues from the combining tube 6.

At the intake end of the combustion tube 9, there is secured the intake ring 7, which is conoidal and inwardly tapered, its shape and curvature being proportioned and developed so that the delivery lip ofthe intake ring is tangential to lines parallel with the axis of the combining tube. Preferably also, the intake ring 7 is so placed that its lentrance lip lies substantially in the same plane with the delivery end of the combining tube 6. This shape and arrangement of the intake rin causes the air sup ly to enter the combustion 'tube 9, ai? the de ivery lip of the ring in a direction substantially parallel with the axis of the combining tube, which is co incident with the axis of the combustion tube. This direction of the air inflow is indicated by the dotted arrows a a. Thus, the air entering the combining tube does not iinpinge upon, or in any substantial degree constrict or impede the fuel spray. But, as the burning fuel spray proceeds toward the outlet end of the combustion tube 9, the gases generated by combustion expand, and as the en* trained air proceeds in the same direction, it becomes heated progressively, and there-l fore expands. The two streams, expanding, the one outwardly and the other inwardly, are constrained to mingle intimately, while neither deviates to any substantial extent from the straight path of movement through the combustion tube. Incidentally, the walls of the combustion tube, though made of thin sheet iron or steel, are protected against overheating by the air in contact with them, becoming only red hot, though the flame isluing from the combustion tube is intensely I have not shown any regulating damper at the entrance 10; if desired,l such regulating damper as is shown in the aforesaid patent may be supplied. The practical result obtained by the above described burner structure is a smokeless fiame, which is the index of complete fuel consumption. By boiler test, this fuel burner has evaporated l'T-fpounds of water to one pound of hydrocarbon fuel, as against fourteen and a half pounds of water per pound of fuel with a burnerhaving the conical intake ring (such as shown in the aforesaid patent) but otherwise of the same structure and proportions.

As is evident from the foregoing, a cardinal feature of the invention consists in that the intake ring curves inwardlyA from the wall of the combustion chamber in such manner that the discharge end of the ring is substantially parallel with said wall and spaced therefrom, whereby the air is permitted to expand both outwardly `and inwardly to maintain its general direction substantially parallel with the axis of the stream.

Another important feature of the invention consists in that the air passageway through jacket 8 to the combustion tube 1s closed, from the combining tube so that none of the air mixes with the fuel spray until after the spray has entered the combustion chamber, whereby the fuel spray is undisturbed by cross currents and eddies before it leaves the combining tube and enters the combustion chamber in the aforesaid parallel relationship with the air.

lVhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

-l. A hydrocarbon burner comprising a small combining tube and a relatively large combustion tube collinearly arranged with the discharge end of the combining tube terminating at the intake end of the combustion tube, a passageway for conducting air to the intake end of the combustion tube around the end of the combining tube, said passageway being closed from the interior of y the combining tube, and an intake ring in the intake end of the combustion tube, propor tioned to deliver the entrained air in a direction substantially parallel with the axis of the combining tube.

2. A hyrocarbon burner comprising a small combining tube and a relatively large combustion tube collinearly arranged with the discharge end of the combining tube ter' minating at the intake end of the combustion v tube, and an intake ring in the intake end of the combustion tube, proportioned to vdeliver the entrained air in a direction substantially parallel with the axis of the combining tube, the intake ring cuiwinginwardly` f from the wall of the combustion chamber so that the discharge end of the ring is substantially parallel with said wall and spaced therefrom.

Signed by me at Boston, Massachuscts, t

WILLIAM n; PARK., 

